Space Is the New, Not Final Frontier For Automakers

Elon Musk isn't the only automaker CEO thinking about space. Many automakers have either sent equipment to the stars or helped NASA do the same. General Motors has has been working with NASA for decades. Toyota, Kia and Hyundai have fresher stellar ambitions.

"General Motors made history by applying advanced technologies and engineering to support the Lunar Rover Vehicle that the Apollo 15 astronauts drove on the Moon," said Alan Wexler, senior vice president of Innovation and Growth at General Motors in a press release. "Working together with Lockheed Martin and their deep-space exploration expertise, we plan to support American astronauts on the Moon once again."

GM, in conjunction with Lockheed Martin and NASA, is designing an electric moon roving vehicle based on the technologies it has been working on. GM says that unlike the Apollo rovers that only traveled 4.7 miles (7.6 kilometers) from the landing site, the new rovers will have to travel farther and over rougher terrain.

It will also use autonomous, self-driving systems to prepare for human landings, provide commercial payload services, and improve the utility of scientific experiments. Lockheed is a veteran of space travel, having built spacecraft and systems that have "gone to every planet, been on every NASA mission to Mars including building 11 of the agency's Mars spacecraft, and played major roles on the space shuttle program and International Space Station power systems."

Earlier this year the Hyundai brand said that it is working on a new rover as well. Hyundai Motor Group made a deal with six Korean research institutes in the aerospace sector to support lunar exploration.

The group includes the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute (ETRI), Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT), Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and Korea Automotive Technology Institute (KATECH).

The Group expects to complete the initial test unit as soon as the second half of 2024 and aims to create a model that has launch capability in 2027.

Many of the lunar vehicle components are derived from technology that is in today's cars. The rover will use Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation's camera and lidar systems, motor, wheels, suspension and charging equipment. Those parts will create lower section of the rover while the top half will be full of scientific instruments for lunar testing.

As it will be in an extreme environment, the rover will have thermal management function and radiation shielding. HMG says the rover, which will land near the south pole of the moon on a date to be determined, will weigh around 150 pounds.

In 2019, Toyota said it was beginning a research project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the main vehicle was completed in 2022. The vehicle, nicknamed Lunar Cruiser, is a crewed pressurized rover meaning the environment is pressurized to create an environment similar to Earth's. Once inside, passengers won't need suits.

"This crewed pressurized rover offers both mobility and habitability, enabling astronauts to move around and explore the moon's surface for prolonged periods beyond the confines of the landing site. In a sense, it is a spaceship that drives on the moon," Fumiya Tsutsui, Director for Space Exploration, JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSEC), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said at a press conference in July.

The vehicle, which was created with the help of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Space Systems Division, measures about 20 feet long and 17 feet wide, meaning a large footprint of more than 340 square feet, and 12.5 feet tall. Tsutsui says it will be able to carry two astronauts around the surface of the moon for 30 days.